Gwen Clapping

Our little Gwen is growing so fast. This was too cute not to share!

Because Babies Grow Up

Is it just me or was it yesterday when your oldest was just 8 months old? It blows my mind how time flies. I heard somewhere once that when you're a young mother the days are looooooonng, but the years fly by. So true.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a Stake Enrichment meeting with my Mom in her stake. The Stake Relief Society President there is friends with Sister Julie B. Beck, General Relief Society President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So, she asked Sister Beck to come speak for the meeting and she did. My Mom invited me to attend the meeting, and I was so glad I did. Sister Beck spoke for maybe 10-15 minutes and then opened it up to questions and answers. One of the questions and answers was something like this:

Young mother: While holding a baby in her arms she asked, "In the recent General Conference, we were encouraged to Find Joy in the Journey. Do you have any tips on how exactly to do that?"

Sister Beck: How many children do you have?

Young mother: Two.

Then, Sister Beck said we must have a sense of humor. She shared an experience that her mother had while living in Brazil when her father was serving as a mission president there. When they moved there, her mother had 6 children and was 2 weeks away from delivering her 7th child. There was a problem with fleas. Sister Beck said she could still remember the smell of the flea powder. Her mother would have to treat the children for skin infections because they'd scratch so hard from the flea bites it would leave open wounds on their skin. 14 of the missionaries had hepatitis. There was a leak in their house. Her mother called the plumber, and instead of fixing the problem, he cut a large hole in the ceiling so it could all come out. With all of this and of course the daily routine of being a mother, her mom went up on the roof where she thought no one would hear her to have a good cry. Well, her father heard her. Of course, "he was having a great time!" He was back to his old mission stomping grounds! He had his wife look at their surroundings exclaiming how beautiful it all was. The red dirt--all of it. Well, she missed the rocky mountains. He told her, in 20 years we're going to look back at this time and enjoy it. We'll reminisce and remember how great it all was. If we're going to enjoy it in 20 years, we might as well enjoy it now. So, she took it to heart and did just that. That is when Enjoy It! became the Bangerter family motto.

I thought it was some great advice.

I have a fabulous friend who is extremely talented at doing this very thing. Bless her heart, she's kind enough to share with everyone tips and tricks on activities you can do to help you Enjoy this time you have with your children, because we all know it goes by too fast. She has her own blog, Because Babies Grow Up, where she posts activities you can do to encourage your child's development. But most importantly, it's things YOU do WITH your child. Something we could all do more of! Check her out today--she's even doing a cool bean bag give away!

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World

I just finished reading, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, by Jennifer Armstrong.

The harrowing survival story of English explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and the ill-fated Endurance . . . As Shackleton and 27 sailors attempted to cross the frozen Antarctic continent from one side to the other, they were trapped in an ice pack, lost their ship to the icy depths, survived an Antarctic winter, escaped attacks from sea lions, and traversed 600 treacherous miles to the uninhabited Elephant Island. Leaving 22 men behind, Shackleton and five others sailed 800 miles across the southern Atlantic Ocean in a 20-foot open boat to tiny South George Island, where they hiked across unmapped mountains to a whaling station. In 1916, 19 months after the Endurance became icebound, Shackleton led a rescue party back to retrieve his men. Remarkably, every crew member survived. (Amazon review.)

It's been a while since I've read a non-fiction--and I must say, I'm glad to have picked this one at my sister, Tiersa's recommendation. While checking out the book at the library I mentioned to the librarian that I had selected the book for my book group. She informed me that A&E had made a movie based on Ernest Shackleton's experience, Shackleton - The Greatest Survival Story of All Time. It's a 3-disc movie, so I knew I was in for a bit of a time committment. Anyhow, Devlin and I have been watching it together the last couple of days, and I'm amazed at Shackleton's commitment to his crew. He truly lived his family motto, "By endurance, we conquer."

So for anyone out there looking for something to boost your spirits, return you to heartfelt gratitude, and motivate you to try harder to be stronger with your own "shipwrecks," I highly recommend it.

**DISCLAIMER: I'm adding a disclaimer about the movie from A&E. There's a "worldly theme" in it communicating an affair. However, no "scenes." Additionally there's some language. I really enjoyed the movie. However, I wouldn't recommend watching this with kids.

Due to Popular Demand . . .

At the request of some of my favorite followers, I'm blogging the first post of 2009! I don't want to disappoint so I'll share some definite crowd pleasers.

First off, Gwen crawled for the first time today. She's been in the "crawl" stance for some time now, but hasn't had the courage to move her hand forward. Well today she did--and flopped on her face. So, I'm sure it won't be long till she's up and running. This video clip is of her "rocking crawl" position.



With the temperature averaging somewhere between 14 and 30 we haven't been out of the house much. We did get out on Saturday to ride bikes since it got up to 45. Well, this next video clip will give you a feel for what happens at least once a day around our house to try and get some of our energy out. Pay close attention to Maxson's "shout outs." I don't know about you, but I think my kids definitely could give Jon Heder a run for his money.



And finally, a close up of the three musketeers after church this last week: